‘When I was a liberal’

Liberals believed that people with same-sex attraction should be allowed to be themselves and live openly, free of the threats of prison and disgrace that had marred so many lives before.

Liberals did not mean “gays should now take all the hurts they may have suffered in their own lives out against all straights,” and they certainly didn’t mean they should get to force straights to not only tolerate them but accept and even approve of their lifestyle.

“Gay marriage” would have confused those long-ago liberals, who were in general not fond of old hide-bound, traditional institutions like marriage, and wouldn’t understand why any gay couple would want to be bound by some bureaucratic document just for a few paltry insurance benefits.

(…)

Anyway — that’s what I believed when I was a liberal. And you know what — I still believe all that stuff! But somehow, this now means I’m conservative, and therefore full of anger and hate and racism. Okay.